Australian gold industry experts Surbiton Associates say a lack of media coverage is letting the mining industry down.
Surbiton director James Pollock said gold mining alone was worth around $40 billion per year to the national account.
Mining’s contribution was virtually ignored by the media said Mr Pollock, who was formerly a senior metals economist for BHP.
“The mining industry exports about five times the value of Australia’s agricultural exports. So you’ve got farming, forestry, and fishing bringing in about 75 billion a year.
“Mining and resource exports, oil and gas, coal, iron, ore, gold. They contribute five times as much, but the average person in the street has got no idea of that at all.
“Just looking at the information that the general public receives on agriculture and farming, if you look at the ABC you’ve got Landline. You’ve got the Country Hour on weekdays around midday.
“There is nothing to publicise the fact that Australia is a big mining export country.”
Gold is Australia’s fifth largest resources export behind iron ore, coal, oil and gas.
The general populace was largely ignorant of mining’s contribution Mr Pollock, who worked as chief mining writer for Bloomberg, said.
That considering Australia was a world tier one miner and mining software producer.
“… The mining industry in the US is pretty small compared with Australia,” he said. “It is minute. Not only do we earn a lot, there’s an awful lot of information on companies that are working, the companies that are listed on the stock exchange, and it is a very important aspect of our economy.
“We’ve got some of the best minds, I think, in the world. You’ve got companies like Rio Tinto using driverless trucks and driverless trains all being operated from Perth, even though their operations are up in the Pilbara.
“As a country, we produce more mining software … designing open pits to making sure you get as much ore out of the ground with as little waste as possible.”
“Look, I’m sure they would be interested if they were told, but journalists in general are not very good at things that involve a bit of science and a bit of understanding of chemistry and physics.”